Coming Home
by cannibal-peach
Summary: ArumatxMeracle Arumat has crash landed on Roak after the defeat of Nox Obscurus and is now stranded with Mercale, whom he finds annoying, aggravating and..attractive? After traveling the galaxy alone for years Arumat may have found a place to call home.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:**Star Ocean and co. are not my property and are the property of Square Enix and Tri-Arch. Now give me candy, I was a good girl and said it right

**Spoiler ALERT: If you haven't gotten the Meracle, Crowe or Arumat ending in Star Ocean: The last hope. AND YOU REALLY WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE ENDINGS FOR YOURSELF you might not want to read. My story will give away what happens.**

**A/N:**The story takes place after the ending of The last hope. This is a Mercale and Arumat romance. I like them together. Sue me.

**FYI:**Cats can talk on Roak. (the planet that the story is based in) There are several different races. Earthling, Eldarian, Cardianon(bad guys) Fellpool (Cat people) Featherfolk (live on the same planet as Cat people, look like angels)

Setting is on Roak (duh) and set a few years in the future. I know that Arumat shouldn't have long to live(considering the story plot of the video game). Shut up. HE IS ETERNAL!!! ETERNAL!!! (cough) sorry.

**Character Analysis: (if you wish to see what these characters look like, look them up on google images Be sure to add Star Ocean to the search with the names)**

**Mercale Chamlotte:**Lesser Fellpool. Eats very well. Is usually extremly cheerful but is also easily angered. Simply put she is a highly emotional person. Has no boundries and will jump on people and lick them to show thanks and affection. Has an incredible sense of smell.

Tends to get herself into trouble. She has no memory of where she come from, or who her family is and was infact found in a lab. She also likes to play a orcarina. (sorta like a flute)

**Arumat P. Thanatos:**An Eldarian (basically has elf ears) who has devoted himself to battle and revenge. His body is slowly giving out on him but he chooses not to get any medical help because that would weaken him, physically. He actually hopes to die after the defeat of Nox Obscurous.

Ever since he was young, people around him have died. The brigade that he was stationed in at 17, his bretheren the Eldarian people, and even his own crew. He alone survives these massacres. Thus he calls himself death. He is somewhat gruff but loyal. Is a little uncomfortable with affection considering that he must distance himself to save others. (so they don't die from being around him. like all the others)

* * *

**Coming Home**

**Ch.1-Thief**

"HEY! You FISH THIEF! Wait till I catch you!" The irate shopkeeper shouted across the street vending halls. "I'll chop off your tail!" "Guards!!"

_Ha. Catch me if you can!_Meracle thought while running as fast as she could with two fish tucked in her mouth by their tails and another two in each of her hands. She took a leap over boxes, leapt onto a roof and took off running again. Four guards chased after her, yelling curses at her.

"Argh!" A bang of metal and a scrapping against the roof confirmed that on guard was down for the count.

_Heh. _Mercale's tail twitched in satisfaction. She glanced back to watch the guard fall off the roof and almost lost her fish in a gasp of fright. The guards were closer than she thought. She took off, running frantically on the conjoined roofs of Tatroi.

"Get back here, you fish thief!" Guards yelled. Finally realizing that they were no match for the strange cat girl they stumbled to a halt, panting for breath. "Damn. That's the fourth time she's gotten free fish."

The leader slowly lower himself onto a corner of a flat roof and watched to girl leap off the end of the conjoined roofs and disappear, the last thing to be seen was her indigo coat as it waved in the air behind her. He wiped the swear from his forehead and sighed. Running that fast in this heat across a stretch of roof tops was impossible even for the knights in Astral.

"Wish I had that kind of energy." He muttered to himself as he adjusted his metal armor, cat ears laid back and tail twitching in irritation. He wasn't looking forward to telling the shopkeeper that he hadn't caught the thief, AGAIN.

Mercale was, of course, enjoying her 'well earned' fish in an alley with her friends. Two fish for her and one fish for each of her friends. She thought she deserved two fish; after all she was the biggest… and the only one with opposable thumbs. Her friends twinned around her legs in thanks for the gift and began to feast. Mercale took a huge bite out of one fish and chewed vigorously. She would have preferred chicken but any food would do. Anything to stop her stomach from rumbling all the time.

"Yum. Meow." She purred as she hurriedly ate every bit of her fish and began licking her fingers and then licked the corners of her mouth. Her whole body stretched out across the alley, cool stone against her back and legs. It also help that she only clad in underwear of sorts, stockings that ended at mid thigh and had openings at the heel and toes of the foot and at thin coat that barely covered her small breasts, leaving her belly and in between her breasts bare. All these clothes were indigo colored and had gold lining at the seems.

A skinny black cat sighed and curled up next to the bony remains of her fish. "Thanks, Mercale. I think you save me from starvation."

"We really own you one." The orange tabby said, still eating his fish.

"Don't mention it. I was hungry anyway." Mercale replied, still licking her fingers.

The clock tower began to toll just then, reminding the citizens that is was two o'clock. Mercale's ears twitched.

"Aww. I gotta leave, meow." Mercale said, getting to her feet. "The evil witch told me to be at her house by four and it takes an hour or two to cross the desert, depending on how many monsters attack you."

"Are you sure you'll be safe, Mercale?" The black cat asked worriedly.

" Yeah. I'll be fine! Take care of yourselves! See ya, Jasper, Rose!" Mercale waved good bye as she ran toward the Tatroi entrance, her barefeet slapping against the stone tiles.

"I really worry about that kid." The orange tabby, Jasper, said as he dragged the fish towards Rose.

"Me too." Rose said, gazing after one of the kindest people she knew.

"Here, help me eat this fish. It's really big."

"Liar. It's smaller than mine."

"But you're still hungry right?" Jasper said as he lovingly butted his head against Rose's shoulder.

"Let's share."

* * *

Mercale marched into the desert entrance, humming to herself happily. Her stomach wasn't rumbling anymore and she was going to go get more food when she got to Tropp. But first she'd stop by one of the oasis in the desert and get a drink of water and if any of the monsters tried to stop her, she'd kick their butts.

So far she'd done a pretty good job at avoiding the monsters. They were, of course, no match for her speed.

Mercale stopped and sniffed, then she grinned. "Water." There was an oasis nearby.

Mercale ran up and all the way back down a desert slope, spotting the oasis located just at the foot and dunked her whole head under the cool water, paying no mind to the disgruntled water life within.

"Aah." Mercale sighed, shaking her head, stretching afterwards. She looked up just to see what looked like an asteroid toward the desert from the sky.

"Hmm?"

The comet hit cause the desert to shake and the tree surrounding the oasis to shiver.

"What is that? More Cardianion? Edge?" Mercale asked the air as she ran toward the landing place without precaution.

* * *

"Tch. Useless." Arumat struggled with the broken chair covering him. He tossed it across the damaged flight deck. "Well. At least I landed upright."

As he looked around his flight deck he saw that the internal damaged was crippling. He hated to see the outside of his ship, especially with the kind of emergency crash landing that he just pulled off. His ship, the Sol ship, couldn't stand up to this kind of damage. A delicate ship made simply for light combat and fast travel.

A tapping sound came from the clear top of the Sol. Arumat narrowed his eyes at the shadowy figure that showed through the dirt on top of the clear covering of the Sol. His hand found his scythe and he tightened his grasp. Well, he'd been wanting a fight for a long time. Guess he was about to have on.

The dirt began getting brushed away and suddenly a face pressed against the covering. A nose and forehead flattened against the cover, big green eyes staring into the flight deck.

"That cat person." Arumat's brow knotted. He truly didn't know whether he preferred the monster or not.

He sighed and punched the button to open the cover. Mercale let out a squawk of surprise as the top began lifting and taking her with it. Arumat was just happy that some controls worked.

She let go and fell into the damaged flight deck and landed on Arumat, banging her head on the floor.

"Ouch. Ouch." Mercale sat up on top of Arumat's stomach, her hands covering her injured head, her toes curling in pain.

"Get off of me."

"Sorry. Meow." Mercale got up, still clutching her head.

"What are you doing here?" Arumat demanded, brushing dirt off of himself as he arose.

"Hmm. Going home. For dinner." With her mind occupied by thoughts of food, Mercale no longer felt pain and became excited.

"What are you doing here, meow? Did you get lonely?" Her tail twitched back and forth from excitement.

Arumat didn't even answer the lonely question. After all, if he was near people they tended to die just by being around him. Loneliness was better. "My ship malfunctioned and I had to make an emergency landing on a hospitable planet."

"oh."

_You have no clue what I'm talking about do you?_Arumat mentally thought at Mercale. An awkward silence filled the air between them not that Mercale took notice.

"I'm hungry, let's go eat." Mercale grabbed Arumat's hand and began leading him out of the ship. Which he would like to think he could do perfectly well on his own but he let her have her enjoyment. For some reason, he could actually fathom what kind of reason, she felt the need to pounce, lick and touch people. Perhaps it was just part of being a cat.

Mercale let go of Arumat's hand to jump down from the ship. She landed perfectly but then stumbled back and slipped into the crevice between the ship and the desert ground...and got stuck.

"Help me! I'm being sucked in!" Mercale panicked and squirmed but only managed to dig herself deeper.

Arumat sighed. _So troublesome. Of all the people he had to meet in the desert.._ "Hold on."

He jumped down, grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her up. It wasn't a hard thing to do considering how skinny the cat girl was. Hard to believe that this person could devour an entire buffet table of food and still want more.

"Thanks meow!" Once both feet were on the ground Mercale latched onto Arumat, legs wrapped around his waist and licked his cheek in thanks.

"Hgh." Having experienced the display of Mercale's affection before, he simply turned his head away and let her do her customary show of affection. Mercale unlatched herself afterward and smiled up at Arumat.

"Let's go, let's go." Mercale took Arumat's hand and began tugging him along behind her. Arumat was reluctant to leave his ship, though there wasn't much that was salvageable from the looks of it. Hopefully he might be able to find materials to create a transmitter to call in an extra ship from one of the stray Eldarian ships. He also went because if he hadn't Mercale would hover over him while he worked. This had happened before on the Calnus.

But there was no helping it now. He'd have to come back after he'd went to town to get some supplies and bandages for his scraps and bruises.

"Hmm? What's that?" Mercale suddenly stopped, watching as something slithered through the sand towards them.

_Just arrived and already people around me are already being threatened._

"Tch. Move." Arumat said, shoving Mercale behind him. He wouldn't let another person close to him die, never again. Never.

The creature in the sand rose up. Revealing itself to be the Sand Bird. The most powerful creature within the desert that controls the sand itself.

"Heh. Do you think attacking me will gain you something? If you leave now your life might be spared." Arumat stated to the bird as it hovered over them. It's bright eyes glowing with rage.

"Uh oh." Mercale's ears laid back. This was not good. She was glad that Arumat was here. Even though he was kinda stiff sometimes and didn't really want to be with her, he still was a really good person to be around, 'cause he'd beat the crap out of anybody.

The Sand Bird let out a shrieking cry of rage and swooped down to beat at them. Arumat was ready for the attack and swung his scythe at the oncoming bird.

_I've been watching me fall for _

_it seems like years__  
Watching me grow small, _

_I watch me disappear  
Slipping out my ordinary world,_

_out my ordinary eyes  
Yeah slipping out the _

_ordinary me into someone else's life  
Into someone else's life..._  
-Watching me fall -The Cure

* * *

End of Ch 1.

Well it's midnight. I'm tired.

I'll work on Daydreamer next (Wednsday)

So....like it. Hate it? Dont' understand it?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Ocean and any of it's characters...

Well it's fairly obvious that Star Ocean4 is less popular that Star Ocean 3. But then again Star Ocean 4 doesn't have Albel in it. It does have Arumat...though. (loves Albel more)

It's just sad the Star Ocean 4 is last of the series.

Sorry for the wait everybody!

Sigh. I love Eleyna. She so fun to write.

–

Ch.2

"ARRRGGHHH! I DON'T WANT TO DIEEE!"

"Stop being such a child and act like a man. It is quite embarrassing having a whelp such as you to be called my mate. Hopefully our offspring do not inherit your personality."

"But the blood! I'm dying. And I don't have offspring. I have children."

"They are the same thing, you ignorant beast. And it is but a bit of blood. Men are such delicate creatures to whine over something so trivial."

"I'm not whining! And you're my wife. Shouldn't you be more...nurturing?"

"My nature does not allow me to nurture you. That is for my children. You, I will abuse till the end of our marriage, which results in either my or your death. Most likely yours."

"Eleeeeyyyynnnnaaa."

"Very well. I will wrap the injury and treat you as if you were a kit. Will that satisfy you?"

"Heh." A grunt from a satisfied male who got his way.

Eleyna Farrence bent over her husband's bleeding hand and licked the blood from the palm, kissed the injury and began to wrap it. Tightly.

"Too tight." Crowe Farrence winced. "Too tight."

"More whining, my dear husband." She said, tossing a sly and slightly evil grin at him, which he loved. He couldn't believe he deliberately hurt himself to get some of her attention. It seemed as if she was always in demand and he could never get enough time with her. Not that he would throw a fit like a child every time she couldn't sit under the stars, at the dock, or have dinner, lunch or even breakfast with him. He has SOME pride.

He kissed her lightly on her upturned face as she knelt by him, as he sat on the grass.

"MMMMEEEEEEOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!"

Crowe looked up at the distant howl. "Did you hear that? Sounded like a mentally handy capped canine who was raised by cats. Boy, this planet is weird."

Eleyna smiled wickedly. "We are about to have guests. Beaten up ones."

Crowe looked back at Eleyna. "I think you're the weirdest thing on this planet. But I guess it's a good thing."

"Hmm." Eleyna rose and walked back into the house. "Continue working on that crib you wretched man-beast."

"Hey-" The door slammed behind Eleyna, which left an ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach. Was it something he said?

* * *

"My tail. My beautiful tail. Meow" Meracle wailed, holding her brunt tail.

Arumat grunted. How was he supposed to have known her tail would be in the way of his symbology spell during that very second? She hadn't been there when he was casting or when he let the spell loose. She and her blue tail just popped out of nowhere.

She wasn't badly hurt either. It was just a tail. The fur would grow back... eventually...maybe….did it matter if it grew back?

She wailed louder. He sighed. She was drawing enemies towards them with her insistent howling. He would have used a healing symbology but all his energy was drained from the last symbology and healing himself. He would have bled to death if he hadn't.

He had stepped in the way of the bird's attacks purposefully when they had been aimed at Meracle. Her body was too light to withstand that many attacks and she was too stubborn to stay down when badly hurt. She would have kept coming back until she was dead. His body could withstand more damage and he wasn't sent flying overhead every time an attack landed on him.

He dug through his pockets. Maybe he had a healing salve that hadn't broken to bits when he had crashed. He pulled out a handful of glasses and bits of powder which he tossed on the ground and dug into his pocket again. This time he found and intact bottle. Though he slightly questioned the content of the bottle he was sure that it was nothing harmful.

Without asking he grabbed her tail from her grasp pored half the content of the potion onto her tail. She yowled in surprised at the suddenness but the skin on the tail began to look like new and her blue fur began growing back. She looked at him with grateful tears in her eyes.

"Let's go." Arumat muttered. He was slightly embarrassed (and more than a little creeped out) from the shining gratitude in her eyes. It's the same look a little kid gives you when you've save their favorite toy from an certain death and afterward they follow you around for days and even in your sleep you feel them watching. Not exactly what you call a pleasant feeling.

"OK! Meeeooowww!" Mercale jumped up as good as new and began racing in the direction of their destination. Which was currently dinner.

Arumat ran to put himself before her. If he let her run around like a child in an amusement park they'd end up running to another enemy. But thankfully his long trek through the desert was almost over.

* * *

"Sire, something has fallen from the sky." voice in the dark whispered.

"..Something? Do tell me about this 'something'?" Another voice, more commanding than the first, said.

"I do not know what it is, Sire. It seem like a star. Bright and flaming. It landed in the desert."

"What are you talking to me for, you fool? Go see what it is."

"Yes, sire." There was a scampering of feet through the dark, almost like the pit-a-pat of a rat. A fitting analogy the Sire thought.

"A star. A flaming star."

"He has come. He has come." There was a cackle and all was silent in the dark. But the dark watched and waited.

* * *

Yeah. It's very very short I know. I'll do better (I hope) next time.

Peach out-


End file.
